No ‘back door’ to UK after 2020, says Home Secretary

SAJID JAVID has insisted that freedom of movement will end after Brexit, saying there will be no “back-door version”.

The Home Secretary told MPs all foreign nationals will require some form of “leave” to enter the country under a future immigration regime.

He said the Government is not planning for EU workers to have an “automatic” right to take up employment in the UK.

While the Government has presented arrangements for EU nationals already in Britain, proposals for immigration rules that will come into force after the post-Brexit implementation period ends in December 2020 are yet to be detailed.

Appearing at the Commons Home Affairs committee yesterday, Mr Javid said: “There will be a complete, total end to freedom of movement.

“Freedom of movement as we understand it today will end. There will be no version of that, no derivative of that, no back-door version of freedom of movement.

“Some parliamentarians have suggested, ‘Can you end it in name only and can you have some sort of back-door arrangement?’ Absolutely not.”

He said the right of someone “as their own free choice” to come and work in the UK could not be part of any “mobility” agreement with the EU.

Mr Javid added: “There will be no automatic right for anyone in the EU for example, or anyone else for that matter, to just make a unilateral decision that they can just hop on a plane or ferry and just come and work in the UK. That will end.”